The Results

The gains kept coming as I poured more calories in. By the end of the two month cycle, my training started to plateau largely because I stopped pouring in more: I got sick of stuffing myself to the point of feeling nauseous, my calorie intake leveled off, and so did my weight. I started spreading workouts out more and more, taking more rest days, feeling more and more beat up. So rather than finishing the final two weeks of the program (which would likely have taken me through a full three months of actual time) I cut loose early in order to move on to my next cycle.

At my final weigh in, I weighed 230 - 35lbs heavier than my starting weight. I had previously been as heavy as 210, but the remaining 20 lbs were entirely new territory. During the process, my BF% went from 15.5% - 20.3% (measured by a handheld bioelectrical impedance tester - not perfect, but accurate enough). This means roughly 20lbs of muscle built in 60 days. Sure, they’re far from the most impressive results in the world, but I can’t imagine most people would complain about building 20lbs of muscle. This was all done naturally, without drugs.

I needed to buy new pants as my old ones grew too tight. My body composition certainly worsened, and I developed a bit of a gut, but I’m still relatively lean and I can always lean out more later - I’m planning a strength phase followed by a weight cut in the next few months. I'm not nearly as photogenic as Alex was at the end of his bulk, but I'm certainly much bigger.

It is my opinion that drinking 4L of soda a day is far from the optimal method for building muscle. My protein intake was relatively low, and I was sometimes lazy about my supplementation and eating my fiber. With higher quality food, I imagine I could have ended the bulk a bit leaner. At the same time, this move was partly practical: soda is cheap and requires no preparation, which made it much easier to get in the calories I needed. With better quality food, I would also have probably ended up eating less food overall and ended the bulk at a lighter weight simply because I would have hit that psychological wall sooner.

The caffeine content of the soda was certainly a feature to look out for. A 2L of cola has about 200mg of caffeine - the equivalent of about two cups of coffee. As such I was effectively getting in 4 cups of coffee a day. This isn’t a super high caffeine intake, but it’s still quite a bit. Luckily, I’m not a high responder to caffeine anyway, so the effect I got from caffeine went from small to basically nothing. Drinking it didn’t actually make me feel any more awake. Still, I found that if I skimped on my caffeine intake at any point, I would start to develop drowsiness. Since dropping the soda from my diet after the end of the program, I’ve had to up my coffee intake to help alleviate my falling caffeine intake and ease me back down to normal levels. I can imagine that if someone were a higher caffeine responder, this might make them wired and jittery throughout the day, so it would definitely be something to look out for.

Another consideration is your dental health. Drinking that much soda a day is certainly likely to wreak havoc on unprepared molars, so I was careful to ensure that I was brushing 2-3 times per day, flossing regularly, and using an anticavity mouthwash. While this probably isn't a perfect defense, it was enough to hold me down for the span of this bulk. I probably wouldn't recommend regular soda consumption if you're concerned about your teeth.

I’m also far from recommending this as a “health” food, and I’m not claiming that high soda consumption is healthy for all populations. Carb tolerance varies based on activity level, so athletes and heavy exercisers are able to get away with a lot more than the average person. I am not claiming that coca cola is some miracle elixir that’s going to make you stronger or healthier - it was just a way to get in the calories that I needed, and I was certain that it wouldn’t much negatively impact my health or performance. Since the dawn of time, bodybuilders and powerlifters have been bulking on similar stuff.

I remember feeling horrified when I first heard that one of the SHW powerlifters (I think it was Tiny Meeker, I’m not sure) bulked on two gallons of gatorade a day, but now I’ve become that person. Safe to say, I’m not the first to try something like this, nor will I be the last. All I’m hoping from this is that people might break down their dietary dogma a little bit and start to question a lot of the negative beliefs they have surrounding stuff like sugar and soda. Consuming sugary food and drink is fine, so long as your activity level is high enough to match - what’s considered moderation for one might not be moderation for another.

Plus, I got to have a lot of fun looking at the shocked faces of bystanders looking into my grocery cart, and I got to take a lot of pictures like these: